Just like the Radio 4 Play for the Day!
Rural Suffolk, 1759. As the country waits for Halley's Comet, Sally Poppy is sentenced to hang for a heinous murder. When she claims to be pregnant, a jury of twelve matrons are taken from their housework to decide whether she's telling the truth, or simply trying to escape the noose.
With only midwife Lizzy Luke prepared to defend the girl, and a mob baying for blood outside, the matrons wrestle with their new authority, and the devil in their midst.
Cast: 13-16f 2-4m
Lucy Kirkwood's play The Welkin premiered at the National Theatre, London, in January 2020, directed by James Macdonald and featuring Maxine Peake and Ria Zmitrowicz.
The reading will be run using Zoom so please contact Lucy Hayton on lucyhayton@hotmail.com if you would like the URL link for the session.
If you would like to take part and read for any of the sessions it would be helpful if you could email Lucy Hayton on lucyhayton@hotmail.com so that we can do some prior arranging of parts.
You are very welcome to just come along and listen and take part in the discussion after the read.
In line with our EDI policy, we undertake an EDI impact assessment of all our artistic programming. 'The Welkin' by Lucy Kirkwood has a central diversity message notably an exploration of historical sexism and its implications for contemporary women's everyday experiences. Casting specifies gender of roles but there is neturality around age and race/ethnicity.
This reading is licenced as an amateur production by arrangement with Nick Hern Books